This is a bit of a bonkers question...

[hippyhoppy]

but when someone is cremated to they burn the coffin too..? and what a waste of money if they do... and also.. if someone has replacement hips, etc.. do they turn into ash, or are they ploked in the urn or disregarded... My old mum was proud of the fact that if she perished in a house fire she'd be identifiable by the numbers on her hips!!!

[cazzz1975]

lol hippy!, I think they burn the lot, I suppose they scrape out the unburnables like the brass coffin handles and er various extras :o

[joggerjayne]

I think they remove the brass bits first.

[wolf63]

Then they ground down the rest so there are no lumps.

[hippyhoppy]

Cazz - what a waste of a coffin (which is a horrible word by the way!). Don't they cost a grand or near to it!! I want a whicker one like Adam Faith... actually.. I want to be stuffed and mounted (oooh err) and scare the grandkids on a daily basis!!!

[cazzz1975]

lol yes I think so, its not like they can be recycled either, stuffed and mounted sounds good, they can use you as a draft excluder in the winter :P

[wolf63]

Cardboard coffins don't last said the undertaker to me when my dad died - he was being creamated!?

[sara3]

I drove behind a lorry on Friday, it said www.coffins.co.uk on it :o/

[hippyhoppy]

I can understand needing a coffin if you're being buried.. but cremated..?! literally money 'up in smoke'.

[hippyhoppy]

Cazz - I was thinking plonked in the corner with a copy of the Daily Mail, or a book of Suduko...

[Goodsoulette]

SOmetimes they burn the coffin, sometimes they burn just a cardboard insert and the coffin has been rented. They burn everything but remove it before grinding in the cases of titanium hips etc.

[mrs.chappie]

I have heard they re-use coffins sometimes, but I thought this was just a rumour. Shame Ethel's not still around. She might have been able to shed some light on this.

[hippyhoppy]

Good - that makes sense.. to rent a coffin.. good lord.. I bet they charge a fortune! I'm watching a film that sends the coffin into the pyre and then the flames burn everything.. I just thought 'what a waste!'..

[craft1948]

I think re-using coffins is actually against the law. My will states that I want to be cremated in a basket-weave coffin........no slurs please.

[hippyhoppy]

craft - I was just about to post 'I don;t have a will' but I think I have as part of my divorce settlement.. what's his is mine and vice versa!! a bit like we're still married.. how beserk!!! (^ I mentioned weaved coffins earlier.. I'm with you on that one!!) (and they look so adorable!!!)

[sherrardk]

I saw a basket-weaved coffin in the back of a hearse recently - did look a bit like a giant washing basket.

[craft1948]

sherrardk....will I care?

[Jemisa]

Yes it is against the law to reuse a coffin but i'm sure it is done in some dodgey undertakers. Those lovely 'brass' handles are 9 out of 10 times plastic too. Hmmm! there's money to be made out 'a death methinks.

Jem.

[sherrardk]

Probably not - just hadn't seen one before and was a bit taken-aback (do look prettier than a plain old wooden box though).

[hippyhoppy]

Hmm... good point gem... those of you who know me on FB now re the situation.. hence the morbitity of the question.. I'm trying to be focused for when the time arrives and don't want to be taken for a ride..

[craft1948]

now that hippy is funny......